If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer?
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
Category: BEST OF
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He told me, with the utmost simplicity and truth, quite superior, or rather inferior, to anything that is called humility, that he was “deficient in intellect.” These were his words. The Lord had made him so, yet he supposed the Lord cared as much for him as for another. “I have always been so,” said he, “from my childhood; I never had much mind; I was not like other children; I am weak in the head. It was the Lord’s will, I suppose.”
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau -
It would have suggested many things to a philosopher to have dealings with him. To a stranger he appeared to know nothing of things in general; yet I sometimes saw in him a man whom I had not seen before, and I did not know whether he was as wise as Shakespeare or as simply ignorant as a child, whether to suspect him of a fine poetic consciousness or of stupidity.
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau -
There are some who, if they meet with any reverse, or are slandered by any one, or if they fall into any bodily malady, any pain in the foot or head, or any other disease, immediately blaspheme. In this way they endure the affliction, but are deprived of the benefit.
On Wealth and Poverty
St. John Chrysostom -
Such a person does good without waiting for a commandment. His good nature makes him in no need of a call to do good.
He does good because it is in his nature, being in God’s image. He does good as a habitual thing, as a breath coming out, without feeling that he is doing something strange or beyond his ability.
So, seeing it is something normal, he does not boast of doing it.
On the contrary, he who does not love good finds God’s commandment heavy, and he becomes an enemy to God! He feels that God deprives him of the pleasure of sinning, and that His commandment restricts him, leading him in a way he does not want. Thus God’s way becomes difficult to him and he walks in it forcibly, if ever he does!
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit
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But, what if it is impossible to live peaceably with everybody?
* Do not be the cause of the controversy.
Be the crucified not the crucifier. You may face troubles from others, but do not be the beginner of evil. Moreover, do not be over-sensitive with regard to the faults of others.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit
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* Do not require others to be ideal, but accept them as they are, not as they ought to be.
We accept nature as it is: the seasons whether rainy, stormy or hot, we do not ask nature to change itself. Let us do the same with the others. Not all of them are righteous and good. So many have weaknesses or certain dominating temperament. People are of different types, some of which are troublesome. So, be like a spectator, not influenced by their behavior, and treat them wisely according to their nature.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit
SO GOOD QUOTES 